Chuka Umunna (born 17 October 1978) is a British Labour Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham since 2010 and was Shadow Business Secretary from 2011 to 2015.[1][2][3][4]

Chuka Umunna was reported to have held a secret meeting in July 2015 with Hillary Clinton’s campaign team to advise her on how to beat Bernie Sanders, her Democratic rival for the presidency dubbed the ‘American Jeremy Corbyn’.[5]

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Promoting a federal state

Chuka Ummuna has argued for a British federal state on multiple occasions, and has said that progressives should not dismiss George Osborne's notion of a Northern Powerhouse, arguing that greater devolution, federalisation of Labour into individual Labour Parties representing each component nation of the UK, greater political autonomy for England in particular, more regional powers and "wholescale federalisation" are necessary to advance the Labour Party.[7][8][9][10]

Labour leadership

Following Labour's defeat in the 2015 General Election and the resignation of leader Ed Miliband, Chuka Umunna was identified as one of the potential candidates to take over as Leader of the Labour Party.[11] He called for Labour to target Conservatives and "aspirational, middle-class voters",[12] saying that the party needs to be "on the side of those who are doing well."[13] On 12 May 2015, he announced his candidature for the Labour Party leadership election.[14] Three days later, he withdrew from the contest, stating that he had been "uncomfortable" with "the added level of scrutiny that came with being a leadership candidate".[15] On 26 May 2015, he announced his endorsement of Liz Kendall, who was unsuccessful in her bid for the Labour leadership.[16]

In September 2015, following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party, Umuna announced his resignation from the Shadow Cabinet and returned to the backbenches, citing differences over a Brexit referendum and issues of collective ministerial responsibility.[17]

Antisemitism

Following publication in October 2016 of the Home Affairs Select Committee report on "Antisemitism in the UK", which was highly critical of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, the Free Speech on Israel group wrote:

"Labour is the target throughout this ill-conceived and politically tendentious Report. It immediately begins with the suspension of Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone and others for 'antisemitism’. Since no one has been tried or found guilty of ‘antisemitism’ one can only assume that the presumption of innocence has been abandoned by lawyer Chuka Ummuna and his Tory friends."[18]